Detours

DETOURS, the debut Big Round Records release from percussionist Joe Porter and pianist Joel Goodfellow, showcases the jazz duo’s capacity for collaboration and improvisation, with animated and dynamic versions of well-known film and literary compositions.

Ennio Morricone’s theme music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is given an emotionally-charged and heroic interpretation, with precise piano passages and vibraphone textures that match the expression of the soprano. Porter and Goodfellow create vivid and fluid narratives in Concerning Hobbits from The Fellowship of the Ring and Prometheus Rapture, Seven Legends for Snare Drum and Orchestra, melding improvised passages with expressive imagery. Paul Desmond’s well-known jazz standard, Take Five, is given a vibrant rendition in which Porter switches between vibraphone and drum set.

Dave Brubeck once said, “There’s a way of playing safe, there’s a way of using tricks, and there’s the way I like to play which is dangerously where you’re going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven’t created before.” Porter and Goodfellow show that playing dangerously and playing expressively results in a transcendent connection between the two musicians, one of virtuosity and passion.